1 99 



Claypole.] -L-i-J [April 1, 



"It is known from the labors of G. St. Hilaire, and recently from those 

 of Dareste and others, that eggs of the fowl if shaken, placed upright, per- 

 forated, covered in part with varnish produce monstrous chickens. Now 

 these monstrosities may be said to be directly caused by such unnatural 

 conditions, but the modification thus induced is not of a definite nature." 



It is not by any means unlikely that the indefiniteness to which the 

 great naturalist here alludes is a mere consequence of our want of knowl- 

 edge of this obscure subject and not inherent in nature. The recent ex- 

 periments of Warynski & Fol, as quoted in the Journal of the Royal 

 Microscopical Society (June, 1866, p. 401), tend strongly to confirm this 

 opinion. These zoologists have succeeded in producing double hearts in 

 chickens by artificial means. The mode of procedure is as follows : " The 

 blunt edge of a scalpel is carefully and lightly drawn backwards along an 

 embryo between twenty-four and thirty-six hours old from just behind the 

 head without injuring any tissues. If all goes well the embryo will con- 

 tinue to develop normally with the exception of possessing two hearts." 

 The authors quoted were also able to produce other abnormalities in a 

 similar manner. 



In the absence of any evidence to the contrary it is more logical to infer 

 that all such cases owe their origin to similar causes, antenatal accidents, 

 not yet discoverable.* 



Turning now to the vegetable kingdom we find monstrous forms by no 

 means rare. Not seldom among wild plants the botanist finds flowers in 

 which one portion in hypertrophied to the injury or the atrophy of another 

 or of others. When this atrophy includes the essential organs, such as the 

 anthers or stigmas, it results in sterility and the extinction of the species 

 along that line. Human selection has enormously increased this form of 

 variation. Most of the double flowers of the gardener are monsters to the 

 anatomist. The showy double corolla is obtained at the cost of more im- 

 portant though less conspicuous organs. To quote special cases is here 

 needless. Abundance of them will occur to every naturalist or may be 

 found in works on the subject. 



5. Moral variation. — Another phase of the subject should not be passed 

 over though any adequate discussion of it is not practicable here. Most 

 naturalists will sigree that the moral development of an organism may be 

 prejudicial. Animals born in domestication are not seldom so ill-tempered 

 or obstinate that little or nothing can be made of them. Horses, subject 

 to vice, as it is termed, are sold from hand to hand, lower and lower in 

 the labor scale, until they end by being employed as drudges in the hard- 

 est and most menial tasks which exhaust their strength and kill them off 

 before their time Dogs, too, are often met with which show a disposition 

 so ferocious or uncertain that their owners are compelled to kill them from 

 a regard to their own safety or to that of others. And the testimony of 



• For some curious illustrations of another but kindred topic in this connection see a 

 paper on the " Disadvantagesof the upright position in man," by Dr. E. Clevenger, in the 

 American Naturalist for 18S4. 



